Mahabharata Goes Manga

If you've ever read the Mahabharata, or watched it on the big or the small screen, you know that among the many reasons for the war between the Pandavas and the Kauravas was the former's demand for five villages from the kingdom. This would seem like a measly request. However, the villages the five brothers asked for were the most strategic locations in the kingdom and effectively constituted Duryodhana's entire share.

Controversial as such alternative versions might be, they are part of the tradition of telling and retellings of the epic. It is this tradition that Shohei Emura, a Japanese graphic artist, and Vidyun Sabhaney, a Delhi-based comic book writer, aspire to create in their latest project to develop aManga Mahabharata.

The duo met at a comic book workshop organised by Sarai CSDS and instantly connected on a shared fascination with the epic, and its many traditions.

A philosophical treatise, a sacred religious text and a moving story. The Mahabharata is many things to many people. "In truth, the epic has grown through the oral tradition of story telling for centuries, the ancient clans' war for power and exploration of dharma was sung and danced to, reinterpreted and appropriated", says Sabhaney.

For centuries, the Mahabharata was more than the written compiled epic penned by Vyas, and it was even more than the Sunday episodes on Doordarshan. "Through the project we're trying to do three things: first, focus on and develop stories and characters considered peripheral and not included in popular tellings. Second, to explore the space for original writings within the epic and finally, we want to give space to the folk versions of the epic that, again, do not find their way into the popular versions," explains Sabhaney.

The artists have chosen to keep a dying tradition of experimental story telling within the Mahabharata alive through the Japanese art of Manga. According to Emura, "the Mahabharata is a fantastic story, unparalleled in its length and cultural importance. Manga has a history of telling stories that are lengthy, and complicated with several characters and the two match in that way." He adds, "I also feel there is still a lot that can be done to visually experiment with the Mahabharata."

Sabhaney believes that "the Manga form lends itself easily to any cultural contexts, as La Nouvelle Manga in France and the various uses of the form in American culture have illustrated. Its ability to simplify things, yet keep the nuances of sound and light are probably why it's easy to tell complicated stories through this medium."

The form will enable the artist to express the dynamics of the relationships between characters and self-reflective moments equally well. The physical features of characters are fairly within the Manga format with exaggerated expressions and "whimsical images", as the word's literal Japanese translation suggests.

Presented by the Peoples' Tree Arts Trust, the first episode in the project will be published by the Pao Collective in the coming months. Title Chilka, the episode is an off shoot from the story of Karna's death using the voice of the trouble-making Narad Rishi and using a ficticious character of Baba, a slightly forgetful old school warrior who has an obsessive desire to save Arjuna from what he believes is certain death.

"Chilka was a great learning experience but to make the next comic, we need to know where the Mahabharata comes from — about its oral tradition,  song and dance based traditions," says Emura. And for that, come December, the duo plan to travel to various parts of the country and explore traditions such as Yakshagana in Karnataka and the oral traditions of Rajasthan, among others.

They also plan to organise workshops next year for comic book artists to connect with each other and learn, and perhaps also learn a bit more about Manga.

(Originally published here in The Hindustan Times)

Ishq-e-Dilli

It's the time of the year when Delhi begins to welcome the winter, with the fresh smell of raat-ki-rani blossoms and a pleasant nip in the evening air. Add to that the overpowering sense of history that the air around Delhi's oldest fort is immersed in. The romance of a 5,000 year old historical tale is palpable. This is the setting of the re-launch of the Light and Sound show at the Purana Qila.

Housed between the Kilkari Bhairon Mandir and the National Zoological Park, the fort is known to be the sixth of the seven cities that make up modern day Delhi. From belief that it stands at the site of the ancient city of Indraparastha from the Hindu epic Mahabharata — a claim that hasn't yet been substantiated — to being home to many Mughal emperors like Humayun, who died here, falling down the stairs from his library, the Purana Qila is central to an understanding of Delhi and its history.

Ishq-e-Dilli, the soon-to-be-launched Light and Sound show invokes an intricate web of stories, from the time of the Pandavas to post-independence India, to bring to life the history of Delhi. The re-imagined Light and Sound show uses state of the art technology — with video projections, lasers, digital drawing and storytelling traditions — and creates images that reflect the man rise and falls the city has seen in its history. The projections are cast from a forty metre distance, mapping the architecture as it illuminates it with colourful illustrations.

Scripted, designed, narrated and produced by Two Is A Film Company for the ITDC, the show will open to the public in November. Earlier criticised for delayed schedule (it was supposed to open for the CommonWealth Games, after all) and for the heavy machinery that will become a permanent fixture at the historical site, the renewed Light and Sound show hasn't been free of hiccups, so to speak. But organisers are hoping that once it's open, they can dazzle the critics into silence.

We only wish history lessons had always been this magnificent.

(Originally Published here in The Hindustan Times)

Facebook Activists

I like it on the floor or the dresser”. “I like it on the front seat of the car”. “I like it on the terrace”. By the time one got to the third status update of the sort on Facebook, it became more entertaining to read the comments than the posts themselves. One man responded by posting — “I like it everywhere”, another woman was scandalised by the innuendo. On certain discussions on these status messages, there wasn’t even the pretence of referring to a handbag.

If you’ve been living under a rock — or off facebook — let us update you on what the handbag scandal is all about. Earlier this year, a bra colours meme attempted to spread awareness about breast cancer and was lampooned with severe criticism by the media worldwide. Last week, we saw the campaign come back to life with the “Where do you like your handbag?” meme. A grad student at the University of Western Ontario, Anushree Majumdar, replied to a query about her status by saying “It’s one of those FB games for women only.” Majumdar later went on to add, “However, it does not make sense in what way this game will help to create awareness about Breast Cancer. Handbag = Cancer Awareness? No. It’s just a silly game.”

“At least the bra thing actually referenced breasts, if the intention here [with the handbags] was pro-sex, ostensibly not, then why was it all veiled?” asks Vandana Verma, a Delhi-based journalist. But then, what does NFL players wearing pink shoes and gloves on the field have to do with breast cancer awareness, either? They say social networking has reduced our collective attention span to that of a goldfish. Has that creeped into the nature of our protests, perhaps explaining the pink shoes and meaningless memes?

Back when the Internet was still scary, instant messaging left people  gaping in unadulterated awe, it’s been pointed out that there’s a vast disparity between a user’s real and virtual persona — and the two must not be taken as the same. “New media is no longer just a communications platform, it’s also a market — both for products and ideas,” says Dr Amrit Chaudhury, a Sociology professor at IIT Delhi, who isn’t a facebook user. “And in both those roles, it is a most interesting one to watch because it provides a curtain one can hide behind. Perhaps these initiatives are only a way for women to talk about themselves. But is there anything particularly wrong with that?”

But the campaign is not likely to find any support with NGOs and activists working in the field. PK Ghosh of Cancer Care India that’s working to spread cancer awareness, thinks that “the Internet can be used very effectively to circulate information but...they’re futile and do nothing but belittle the cause. If it’s meant to be some sort of metaphor then it’s too convoluted for the message to be understood.”

Delhi-based academic and queer rights activist Gautam Bhan believes that “campaigns” such as these only serve as an “excuse since they allow people to act without agency.” He adds, “One needs to make a differentiation between activism and such facebook games. Technology of various kinds has provided an interesting medium which is going to pull in all directions. But that is no reason to dismiss it as trivial.” The thing to watch, as Dr Chaudhury and Bhan concur, is how the offline and the online will relate as the medium grows.

As seems to be the consensus, social networking has the potential to be than just a popularity contest and a platform for armchair activists who have an opinion on all and sundry but don’t have the time to do more than just lift a finger. “It has opened brand new and fascinating avenues of discourse and has the potential to be a democratising space,” adds Bhan.

Be it the Pink Chaddi Campaign that shook the country out of its pants, the Modolvian Twitter Revolution of 2009 or the Iran election in June of the same year that saw the State Government asking twitter to delay scheduled maintenance, so as to not interrupt tech savvy Iranians as they discussed the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or Salman Khan’s twitter campaign that raised over Rs 5 Lakh, social media has proved itself to be useful in reaching an unsurpassed number of people. But these initiatives were successful because they involved direct action, and not just a status update.

~

(Originally published in The Hindustan Times on Sunday, October 17)

Leonard Cohen - Songs From The Road

Artist: Leonard Cohen
Album: Songs From The Road
Rating: 5 stars
Record Label: Columbia Records Legacy Recording


Close on the heels of Bird On A Wire, a DVD of never before seen footage from Cohen's 1972 European tour comes the CD/DVD combination Songs From The Road, a collection of 12 songs from Cohen’s 2008/09 tour. For those of us who only dream of hearing the legendary rock and roll hall of famer live, this is as good as it gets to the second best thing, after Live In London, of course. Not surprisingly, the record starts with Lover Lover Lover from Cohen’s Tel Aviv concert, where he performed to a crowd of over 50,000 people and still managed to connect with the audience in typical Cohen fashion. It’s almost overwhelming to hear a crowd of 20,000 plus people cheering in recognition as Cohen sings opening notes to songs like Famous Blue Raincoat, Bird On A Wire, Chelsea Hotel, and Hallelujah. An interesting thing about the collection is the presence of songs like That Don’t Make It Junk and Waiting For The Miracle that you won’t find on any greatest hits collections, and the almost perverse absence of any tracks from I’m Your Man, Cohen’s masterpiece record from 1988. What is probably most endearing about this new package is the genuine humility and appreciation he shows for the response from his fans. The best part of the package, however, is the 20 minute bonus footage of his band navigating through 195 countries. Recently turned 71, Cohen’s legacy is truly spectacular and this collection proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that his music was wise beyond its years.
 
~
 
(Originally published in The Sunday Guardian on September 26, 2010)

Shaa'ir & Func - Mantis

Artist: Shaa'ir and Func

Album: Mantis

Record Label: Blue Frog Records

Rating: 3 stars

Two and a half years in the making, Mantis is the third studio album from Shaa'ir and Func. Arguably, it’s no mean feat for an indie band to release three whole albums. Available for free download on their website, Mantis is a welcome change in the indie music landscape of our country. Again, not such a big deal considering the music put out by a lot of the bands. The album goes from pretty pulsating loops to the breakbeat influences one has grown to almost expect from the band. We’re not alone, the opening track, starts off with a quite reverberation before moving into a bouncy rhythm and Monica Dogra’s quirky – supposedly poetic – vocal delivery. Hyperbole raises the bar a little, very easy to move to. The music has the potential of being anthemic among desi listeners, is catchy and a slight departure from the synth-bass focussed Light Tribe from 2008. Randolph Correia’s excellent skills light up tracks like Take It Personally and My Roots. The choppy beats on When You’re Around and the bass-driven instrumentation work quite well with Dogra’s soul-inspired lyrical play. Goodbye Cruel World is energetic, yet effervescent. The sound is interesting, the lyrics are political. The trouble is, none of that is any different from what we’ve seen of the duo in the last two records – New Day and Light Tribe would both fit that description quite well. And where the first two times the sound was refreshing, the third time around it seems rather affected. Only ever so slightly, though. A most refreshing indie release on all other counts. 

~

(Published in today's The Sunday Guardian)

Röyksopp - Senior

Artist: Röyksopp

Album: Senior Living

Rating: 4.5

Record Label: Wall of Sound/ Astralwerks

If 2009’s Junior was optimistic, then Röyksopp’s fourth LP titled Senior is the perfectly aged foil – edgy, moody and brooding. Recorded around the same time, the two very different records are meant to present two different sides of the duo. While Junior was supposed to present a more “danceable” Röyksopp (which is delivered rather efficiently), Senior is about what they call “The darker sibling who lives in the attic”. True to their claims, Senior is a record to get lost in, to kick back to. The duo from Norway has gone entirely instrumental on this effort, quite a departure from their usual vocal-intensive music. Tricky Two, appropriately named for the second track, may create a momentary illusion of a slightly uptempo drift, but listen carefully and you’ll see that’s only part of the story being told through the record. On The Alcoholic, you can almost hear the birds chirping and the rain as if you were on a drunken ride through the countryside. The broody Senior Living is haunting, exotic and delicately layered with an almost angelic choir like feeling in parts. The Drug, on the other hand, effortlessly fuses minimal 90s house synth with a trip-hop beat. Forsaken Cowboy takes us back to the duo’s debut album Melody A.M. with its swinging tempos and restrained moodiness. The soundscape on this record is lush, if at times a bit eerie like on The Fear, and full of 70s synth recalls. Overall, one of the best albums we’ve heard so far this year.

~

(Published in today's The Sunday Guardian)

Ashutosh Phatak - The Petri Dish Project

Artist: Ashutosh
Album: The Petri Dish Project
Record Label: Blue Frog Records
Rating: 2 stars

When there’s so much buzz created around an album pre-release, it would only be fair to be a little sceptical of what’s on offer. But that’s how indie music seems to work in India, and the irony is not exactly lost on us. One possible theory is that the releases are so few and far between that the listener just eats into all the hype created by “artist managers”, “promoters”, club owners and the like. Such is the story of Blue Frog co-owner Ashutosh Phatak’s latest album The Petri Dish Project. Now, Ashu has been dabbling in electronic music as an independent producer and as part of a few other collaborations for a while now and his music has never quite made an impression, and for good reason. The Petri Dish Project, unfortunately, doesn’t put any big dents in that reputation. The opening song, Petri Dish, is easy listening and a damp squib as an opener, reflecting well on the rest of the record. The album’s highlight, beyond doubt, is the large number of collaborations with interesting female vocalists like Anushka Manchanda, Monica Dogra, Suman Sridhar, Ashima Aiyer and Saba Azad. The smoky Saba Azad on Immaculate and the quirky Ashima Aiyer on Miss Understood are probably the high points of the album, and the only two tracks that have any recall value, too, perhaps. Overall, a decent effort but nothing particularly interesting. The album makes one wish musicians would stop creating soundscapes to a perceived lower expectation of the “desi” audience.
 
~
 
(Originally published in The Sunday Guardian, September 5th, 2010)